Asia Unseen · Indonesia
Indonesia
17,000 islands, three of which everyone visits. Southern Bali has become hard work, but Indonesia remains the largest playground in South-East Asia — and one of the few places where you can still arrive somewhere and meet nobody.
Who it suits: Surfers, divers, volcano hikers, long-haul travellers.
- Entry
- Visa required
- Best months
- Apr · May · Jun · Jul · Aug · Sep · Oct
- Budget
- from €30 / day
- Rules checked
- September 2026
Jakarta · Rupiah (IDR) · UTC+7 to UTC+9 across the islands
Can you enter, and for how long
Ordinary passports, tourism. Each rule below comes from the traveller's own government, with the month it was read — not from another guide.
By passport
Visa required
Electronic visa on arrival (e-VOA), or at a dedicated counter.
Taken in September 2026 · France Diplomatie — Indonésie, entrée et séjour ↗
Visa required
Visa required. 30-day visa on arrival for tourism, family visits and some business activity.
Taken in September 2026 · GOV.UK — conseils aux voyageurs, conditions d'entrée ↗
Visa required
Visa required.
Taken in September 2026 · Gouvernement du Canada — conseils aux voyageurs ↗
We have not taken this rule from an official source
the US portal refuses automated reading — so we cannot check it the way we check the others. Rather than transpose the rule from another passport, which gets paid for at a border, we would rather send you to the source.
We have not taken this rule from an official source
the Australian portal refuses the connection — so we cannot check it the way we check the others. Rather than transpose the rule from another passport, which gets paid for at a border, we would rather send you to the source.
We have not taken this rule from an official source
the New Zealand portal does not publish entry rules — so we cannot check it the way we check the others. Rather than transpose the rule from another passport, which gets paid for at a border, we would rather send you to the source.
When to go
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
April to October for Bali, Java, Lombok and Komodo: this is the dry season. November to March brings daily rain, often brief, and lower prices. Note that Sumatra and the Moluccas run on a different calendar — the archipelago is 5,000 km wide.
What not to do
- Underestimating traffic in southern Bali: 20 km can take an hour and a half
- Renting a scooter without a motorcycle licence and an international permit — the leading cause of medical repatriation
- Booking Komodo on price alone: boat condition varies enormously and incidents are not rare
- Chaining too many islands: every change costs a full day
Booking your trip
The links below are affiliate links: they change nothing about what you pay, and they fund the writing of these pages. We only put here what we actually use.
Accommodation
The best coverage of small family-run hotels, and free cancellation almost everywhere.
Find a hotel (affiliate link, opens in a new tab)Trains, buses and ferries
The only reliable aggregator for overland transport in Southeast Asia, with real timetables and named operators.
See the routes (affiliate link, opens in a new tab)Activities and guides
Free cancellation up to 24 hours before, verified reviews, and someone to talk to when a boat does not sail.
See what is on (affiliate link, opens in a new tab)The French version of this page also lists a travel insurer. It is not here on purpose: that insurer sells to French residents, and a policy you cannot buy is not a recommendation.
More on Indonesia
Sources and data
Entry rules for Indonesia are read on these official pages, and re-read every night. When one changes, the page changes and the correction is published in the corrections log, next to what we used to say.
Some source names below are in French, and stay that way on purpose: they are the titles of French government pages. Renaming them in English would make them harder to find, and finding them is the point. The rule for your own passport is read at your own government's portal, named alongside it above.
- France Diplomatie — Indonésie, entrée et séjour
- Direction générale de l'immigration indonésienne
- France Diplomatie — Conseils aux voyageurs
The data behind this page is open: indonesie.json, CC BY 4.0.